Wednesday, May 03, 2006

The NPR's timeline on the stem cell debate misses key entries and doesn't get some entries right, but here are parts:

November 1995: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin isolate the first embryonic stem cells in primates -- rhesus macaque monkeys. The research shows it's possible to derive embryonic stem cells from primates, including humans.

Nov. 5, 1998: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins University report isolating human embryonic stem cells. The cells have the potential to become any type of cell in the body and might one day be used to replace damaged or cancerous cells. But the process is controversial: One team derived their stem cells from the tissue of aborted fetuses; the other from embryos created in the laboratory for couples seeking to get pregnant by in vitro fertilization.

Aug. 9, 2001: President Bush announces his decision to limit funding to a few dozen lines of embryonic stem cells in existence at that date. Many of the approved lines later prove to be contaminated, and some contain genetic mutations, making them unsuitable for research.

Feb. 12, 2004: South Korean scientists announce the world's first successfully cloned human embryo. Unlike other past cloning claims, the scientists report their work in a prestigious, peer-reviewed journal, Science. The embryos were cloned not for reproductive purposes but as a source of stem cells. The news reopens the contentious debate over somatic-cell nuclear transfer, which is sometimes referred to as therapeutic cloning. Scientists say cloning offers a unique way to produce cells that may someday be used to treat diseases. But critics argue that any form of cloning is morally repugnant and should be banned.

June 25, 2004: New Jersey legislators pass a state budget that includes $9.5 million for a newly chartered Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The move makes New Jersey the first state to fund research on stem cells, including those derived from human embryos. (MORE: 'New Jersey to Fund State Research on Stem Cells') [IPBiz note: As Bill Clinton might say, this depends a bit on what you mean by "fund research."]

Nov. 2, 2004: California voters approve Proposition 71, which authorizes the state to spend $3 billion on embryonic stem-cell research over 10 years. The measure is a response to federal funding restrictions put into place in 2001. It puts California ahead of the federal government and many other nations in promoting the research.

May 19, 2005: The same South Korean researchers who reported cloning a human embryo in 2004 announce another milestone: They say they've created a streamlined process that uses far fewer human eggs to produce usable embryonic stem cells -- a major step toward mass production. Their work is published in Science.

May 31, 2005: Connecticut approves $100 million in funding for adult and embryonic stem-cell research over the next 10 years.

July 13, 2005: Bypassing the Illinois state legislature, Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich creates a stem-cell research institute by executive order. The institute will be funded through a line item in the state budget that gives the Public Health Department $10 million to fund research.

Sept. 19, 2005: Scientists in California report that injecting human neural stem cells appeared to repair spinal cords in mice. The therapy helped partially paralyzed mice walk again. [IPBiz note: This is the UCal/Irvine work that was also reported on "60 Minutes" on 28 Feb. 2006. Neither NPR nor "60 Minutes" note that the human stem cell line used was on the Bush "approved" list.]

Nov. 11, 2005: University of Pittsburgh researcher Gerald Schatten alerts editors at the journal Science that there may have been ethical lapses in a landmark cloning paper published in February 2004. In that paper, South Korean scientists claimed they had made an embryonic stem-cell line from a cloned human embryo. Schatten alleged that some of the egg donors in that study had been paid, and some were junior colleagues of the lead author, Hwang Woo Suk. Schatten also says there were minor technical errors in one of the tables in a 2005 paper by the same group, a paper on which Schatten was senior author. In that paper, Hwang et. al. claimed to have made 11 cloned stem-cell lines. At the same time, Schatten severs his collaboration with the South Korean scientists.

Dec. 15, 2005: Hwang admits that there are serious errors in his 2005 paper in Science and asks the journal to retract it. The admission comes three weeks after Hwang apologized for ethical lapses and stepped down as head of the stem-cell program at Seoul National University.

Dec. 29, 2005: The Seoul National University investigation concludes all of the data was fabricated in the 2005 paper that Hwang's team published in Science.

Jan. 10, 2006: The Seoul National University investigation concludes that the landmark 2004 paper was fabricated as well. Two days later, Science formally retracts both Hwang papers.

[IPBiz note: there are a lot of deficiencies in the NPR timeline. More later. Note also the NPR discussion does not mention the word "patent."]

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I'm a patent lawyer located in central New Jersey. I have a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, where I studied graphite intercalation compounds at the Center for Materials Research. I worked at Exxon Corporate Research in areas ranging from engine deposits through coal and petroleum to fullerenes. An article that I wrote in The Trademark Reporter, 1994, 84, 379-407 on color trademarks was cited by Supreme Court in Qualitex v. Jacobson, 514 US 159 (1995) and the methodology was adopted
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